Raising minimum wage is not going to improve people’s standard of living over the long haul. If wages increase, the ramifications could cause businesses to increase their prices, and cut jobs.

When business expenses increase so do prices, and consequently, the cost of living.

The current employer tax rate contribution for Social Security is 6.2 percent.

Because the state of California owes money to federal unemployment for the payout of unprecedented amounts of claims, its credit against the 6 percent unemployment tax was reduced to 3.9 percent. So business in California will pay 2.1 percent to the federal government for unemployment insurance instead of a normal .6 percent.

When a business pays an employee $10 an hour, it is really paying out $10.83 plus per hour. When the minimum wage rises to $15 an hour, employers will be paying out $16.22 per hour.

Let’s take a look at McDonald’s. Hypothetically, McDonald’s hires cashiers for $15 an hour. A busy McDonald’s may have two to three cashiers working at the same time.

They are open 24 hours which means that the fast food chain will pay out approximately $2,700 per week to have cashiers man one location. That is approximately $141,000 per year.

McDonald’s is already gearing up to replace cashiers with ordering stations.

McDonald’s is notorious for making business decisions based on the bottom line. They have already decided that it is cheaper to pay hot coffee lawsuits than it is to have to throw out cold coffee gone bad.

Basically, if the wage goes up, you can be sure that McDonald’s will not be the only ones replacing people with machines.

This will lead to unemployment for thousands and you can bet that they are going to increase prices anyway, they are a huge corporation.

What about mom and pop businesses?

These diligent men and women open businesses to support their families.

Mom and Pop businesses may hire one or two employees to help them out.

They do not get the same kinds of wholesale discounts that large corporations with massive purchasing power get.

Owning one of these kinds of business is like buying yourself a job.

Mom and Pop already pay more to be in business than a huge corporation and at times, only make payroll by not paying themselves.

Frequently, these businesses are run at a barely profitable level, and customers purchasing at these business do so because of convenience or loyalty.

Now. raise minimum wage. These lovely people just raised their outgoing expenses by approximately $430 per week. Running their business is a hobby because it is no longer going to pay the bills.

At least one employee is going to lose his job so that mom and pop can keep the lights on.